With high demand, York Academy to add another grade

York Academy Regional Charter School has strong demand heading into its third year of existence.

The York City-based school is adding fourth grade in the fall after starting out as a K-2 school in 2011, with a plan of adding a grade a year until it reaches K-12.

Academy board president Dennis Baughman said the charter school should have 375 students, right at its capacity, this fall. The school has a waiting list for kindergarten and many families of third-graders interested in staying with the school for fourth grade, he said.

The school draws from York City, Central York and York Suburban school districts. Tuition is paid by the school district where the student lives.

The school is holding a mandatory informational meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, at the school for any parent who wants to get an application. Pre-registration isn't required.

Search for a chief: Baughman said 80 applications came in for a permanent chief academic officer to replace Kathleen Eschbach, who left in October after helping get the school off the ground.

School officials will narrow the field down in the next month before holding interviews with the final two to three candidates in March or April. A decision is expected sometime in the spring, Baughman said.

YorkCounts, a nonprofit quality-of-life group, spearheaded the effort to create York Academy as a way to attract families to York City and improve the quality of education. YorkCounts is now an initiative of the York County Community Foundation.

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